Chapter 20: The Super Storm.

The storm arrived with an announcement of lightning and thunder. Gusts of wind rocked the shelter and the earth trembled. The air froze then became swelteringly hot. Rain pounded on the roof and mists formed inside.

With me at the center and barriers and magic shields being cast color exploded around me. So much mana, raging with many tempests of mana battling other elemental many bouncing off their opposites and empowering with their similars. Mana fused further creating chaos in the storm, a storm within the storm. Those didn't last long before being ripped apart.

The first spell, a wind blade, formed. Wind mana had encountered fire only to be pushed apart by two torrents of earth mana coming together. Like being shot out of a cannon the empowered wind mana formed a blade that slapped against a mana shield, sending cracks along the shield like cracked glass.

"Double up!" Someone shouted and more barriers and shields were cast.

This was all too much, too much to keep track of. The elements transforming, the swirling mini storms. The amount of mana in the air, it was suffocating! Mana toxicity is building up in us and with so many people together the mana being generated from us is creating even denser mana further raising mana toxicity.

Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 105!

That did Work for us though, the mana of people is creating a buffer that the elemental mana is constantly tearing at.

I need to heal them!

I use my [Grace of Wholeness] with [Aura of Elegance]. It's not very effective but it may make a difference if I start now.

More spells materialized hitting the shields, some even breaking past the first one. I start nudging the mana, preventing spells from forming early on as to not require a lot of effort. The earth mana is tough to move, it requires a ton of effort like picking up lead weights. Air mana has the opposite, it's too easy to move and I mostly overshoot and need to readjust again

Pain shot through me as the two manas transformed inside of me and violently rejected each other, shooting out of me.

I need to be careful of which mana and when I manipulate.

The buffer did prevent spells from forming in the group of people but it's also keeping my transformed mana in like a core.

Lightning mana snaked through heading toward a swirling mass of fire mana. If it reaches it'll become empowered and create a spell!

I grabbed off the lightning mana and redirected it upward. A shock coursed itself through my arm.

Ting! Mana Manipulation has met requirements for a breakthrough. Mana Manipulation will now continue leveling past level 50!

Ting! Mana Manipulation has obtained level 20!…Ting! Mana Manipulation has obtained level 24!

Manipulate Mana: You have managed to reach out to the ambient mana and manipulated them. This will help you master the ways of manipulating mana outside of you.1st Breakthrough: You have learned how to manipulate elements. This will help you master doing so2nd Breakthrough: You have learned how to manipulate essence. This will help you master doing so3rd Breakthrough: You have learned to expand your area of control. This will help you master doing so4th Breakthrough: You have learned how to manipulate small amounts of mana. This will help you master doing so5th Breakthrough: You have learned how to manipulate large amounts of mana. This will help you master doing so

Ting! Pain Tolerance has obtained level 18!

Long time no see [Pain Tolerance], don't take this the wrong way but I hope to never see you again.

The more mana I manipulated the more elemental mana builds up around me with nowhere to go. The worst offender is by far Earth mana. It repels almost all other mana and clumps up into large masses. Lightning is bad too as it is empowered by fire and water, has enough innate speed to not need repulsion to form spells, and shocks me when I try to move it!

But... What if I could force a transformation? Turn lightning mana into speed essence? Will that generate more lightning or speed essence in me? How will speed essence help me?

It was worth a try. The next lightning mana that came through I grabbed and willed it to transform... no luck, impressing my will on it doesn't seem to have an effect.

What is essence? I asked myself as I nudged wind mana away from a cyclone of fire mana. Why did earth mana transform into nature mana and not other essences? I grabbed a whole wave of empowered fire and sent it down, away from a wall of ice mana.

Heat surged within me making me feel lightheaded.

Be-because that's its identity, it became more natural because of the influence of nature mana.

I grabbed another bolt of lightning and impressed the identity of speed on it. Speed, you are speed itself.

Ting! Mana Manipulation has met requirements for a breakthrough. Mana Manipulation will now continue leveling past level 60!

Ting! Mana Manipulation has obtained level 25!…Ting! Mana Manipulation has obtained level 29!

6th Breakthrough: You have transformed an element into an essence. This will help you master doing so

It worked! Well, kinda. It partially worked. I am still shocked by the lightning but the world also seemed to slow down for just a second. Only about a quarter of the lightning mana I grabbed was transformed. But it worked, now I can build up essences instead of elements.

I check my mana. Eight thousand left. Oof, maybe not transform mana, it took a lot. Now I'm glad that I couldn't transform the whole thing, I'd be left bone dry.

Ting! Mana Manipulation has obtained level 30!…Ting! Mana Manipulation has obtained level 35!

Hours passed and I slowly got better, the range of my control getting further, the more I could influence and the effort it took decreased. I only wished I was better, several injuries happened already but thankfully nothing fatal. But now my mana is running on embers. Chyzu is next to me and so are my parents. I lifted a hand toward them.

"I'm running out" Nothing more needed to be said. They can see that spells are being created less and less the better and more use to the turbulent mana I get.

Chyzu put in about three thousand mana and mom and dad each put in about one thousand. Half the maximum amount. Each touched my bracelet, just one piece of my Kyhosa set, and with their link mana can be shared between the set.

I noticed something really odd. Randomly, a tiny amount of mana, when very depleted in intensity would transform into earth mana. Regardless of type, low-intensity mana would transform spontaneously into unstable or stable earth mana.

That's the most stable mana? It is hard to stop once it gets going and is hard to move once it has stopped. Heavy like lead. It's almost like a stable periodic element, like iron.

Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 106!Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 107!

I continued working. By now I can recognize the early signs of storm spell materialization. I have gotten used to earth and wind mana, instinctually using just enough needed to barely prevent storm spells.I learned to grab just enough mana to redirect and let the MM force take care of the rest. I began pushing the boundaries of my control, to further prevent more spells. Now the storm spells are becoming rare. Instead of once every few seconds only one spell gets through every minute.

Every time I needed to refill my Kyhosa several people were willing to donate their mana. But I can already feel exhaustion seeping in. I'm honestly not sure if I can hold out the entire storm

However, the crisis is beginning to strike again. The amount of elemental mana transformed by my cursed skill has reached a tipping point. The pressure created by our buffer is causing it to fuse! Wind and fire. Water and ice. Lightning with water and fire all created a core that began to attract more mana from the storm. The pressure of the storm began to squeeze on the buffer and further squeeze down in the forming core until a sphere of nexus mana has formed.

The mana around became a lot more violent all trying to get at the core. The core can't drift down because of the buffer! The buffer Is being worn away, ripped apart from the magical energies. More spells started being created and the first near-death injury happened. A blast of light mana seared a hole in the gut of someone. A healer had to worm their way through the crowd to heal her.

What to do? What to do? I have to get rid of that!

Hold on. Nexus mana? Nexus Gem? My Kyhosa can store mana. But this core has tens of thousands of mana, but it has fused, does it count for less?

It's worth a try. I thought.

Using Manipulate mana I force the Core into my Amulet. It was like trying to squeeze a ball into a hole half its size.

Come on! Get in there!

An ice lance flew over my head narrowly missing me. With my focus put on the nexus mana core, a volley of spells manifested. I heard two screams and cries of grief. I had failed to keep everyone alive.

I gritted my teeth and with one last push, the core slid into my amulet. Power filled the amulet as it vibrated and a high-pitched humming sound emanating from it, causing people to look. However, it seemed like the amulet accepted the mana after a minute and it calmed down. I immediately felt the amount of maximum mana My Kyhosa could fit was cut by a third.

No problem, I can just have it refilled more often.

With the core sealed away the mana around began acting normally. Well, normal for this storm that is.

Hours passed, and I noticed that we haven't even gotten halfway through the storm. As the true core of the storm descended upon us the mana became more and more intense, so much so that storm spells began to quickly rise in number. My exhaustion at this point is causing temporary lapses in judgment and my mistakes are beginning to show. More spells are being flung around, making it worse on the shields.

How long has it been since this started? Four hours? Ten? I honestly had no clue. These storms typically last a good dozen hours on average.

Then, Our life saving buffer broke. A huge swirling mass of earth mana plowed through it tearing it apart, causing a rush of elemental mana in its wake. Heat and cold swept through us like an unforgiving tide. A fog so thick we couldn't see through it rolled us over our clothes began to get damp. The only good news is that another core was starting to form and the earth mana disrupted that.

Ting! Mana Toxicity Tolerance has met requirements for a breakthrough. Mana Toxicity Tolerance will now continue leveling past level 20!

Ting! Mana Toxicity Tolerance has met requirements for a breakthrough. Mana Toxicity Tolerance will now continue leveling past level 30!

Ting! Mana Toxicity Tolerance has obtained level 19!…Ting! Mana Toxicity Tolerance has obtained level 25!

Mana Toxicity Tolerance:Being exposed to high amounts of mana density can lead to a build up of mana, poisoning you. This skill will help you tolerate mana poisoning.1st breakthrough: Some beings are so strong they exude so much mana as to kill lesser beings. Being in the presence of one, even when it's limiting its mana leakage, has allowed you to adapt and tolerate its unique mana, letting you be able to push out mana against them the more used to them you are.2nd Breakthrough: You've been exposed to Mana Toxicity for an extended period of time. Allowing you to adapt and recover from it faster.3rd Breakthrough: You've been exposed to mana toxicity induced by a mana storm. The highly intense mana will now do just a little less damage to you.

I pushed against the elemental mana, slow reforming our buffer only for it to get torn through again. I would have to wait until the core of the storm passed.

Time kept seeming to jump ahead for a few seconds as I felt my head start to droop, sleep threatening to overtake me.

an earth spike then pierced the floor. Gouging one person's leg. She would have died If I had not nudged the earth mana just enough. Several people would have died by now from the spells but so far none had caused lethal injuries. My efforts are rewarded by screams of pain rather than cries of grief.

I was doing all I could just to keep people alive and to prevent spells from forming in the crowd.

It felt like hours as shields broke and people got injured. Sweat poured off from me, another surge of fire mana coming over us. The worst part was that the sweat froze soon after from ice mana. And then mana started to slowly lose its intensity. The worst had passed. We had gotten this far we can make it through the rest.

Once the storm had died down enough I rebuilt our buffer by pushing out the elemental mana and letting it take shape once more. I could not get all the elemental mana however, I'll need to deal with a second core forming soon.

I felt myself fall sideways only to be caught by mom. I shake myself to rid myself of exhaustion and continue my work. The occasional jolt of pain now what I seek to keep myself conscious

The second core was easier to seal away. I put one in my left bracelet. Down to one-third of my mana, and I'll probably have to deal with a third. Our final test will be trying to survive without my skill.

That time came all too soon, with my constant lapses in time. With my Kyhosa sealing away dangerous cores and with my pitiful mana reserves I could no longer keep using my skill except for only the direst of circumstances. That was my intention but the next thing I knew I felt the warm morning sun on my face.

Ting! Mana Manipulation has obtained level 36!…Ting! Mana Manipulation has obtained level 47!

Manipulate Mana: 10/101st Breakthrough: 10/102nd Breakthrough: 6/10 (Action: 2/5 Knowledge 4/5)3rd Breakthrough: 4/10 (Action: 2/5 Knowledge 4/5)4th Breakthrough: 3/10 (Action: 1/5 Knowledge 2/5)5th Breakthrough: 10/106th Breakthrough: 4/10 (Action: 1/5 Knowledge 3/5)

Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 60!…Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 73!

Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 108!Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 109!

Sense Mana: 10/101st Breakthrough: 10/102nd Breakthrough: 10/103rd Breakthrough: 10/104th Breakthrough: 10/105th Breakthrough: 10/106th Breakthrough: 10/107th Breakthrough: 10/108th Breakthrough: 10/109th Breakthrough: 9/10 (Action: 4/5 Knowledge 5/5)10th Breakthrough: 10/10

Ting! Mana Toxicity Tolerance has obtained level 26!…Ting! Mana Toxicity Tolerance has obtained level 32!

Mana Toxicity Tolerance: 10/101st Breakthrough: 9/10 (Action: 5/5 Knowledge 4/5)2nd Breakthrough: 5/10 (Action: 2/5 Knowledge 3/5)3rd Breakthrough: 8/10 (Action: 5/5 Knowledge 3/5)